Clark's Compelling Catwalk

Every year when we ask people what questions they have about God and faith and life, the most questions we get have to do with life after death.  The Bible doesn't give us a lot of specific details that a lot of people are looking for, but it does give us some general pictures that we can count.  Today we look at the questions people have asked about life after death and what the Bible h...

This is the second of our two part series on "Is America a Christian Nation?"  We look at the history of our country, our founders and framers, and see what they had in mind when they thought about the relationship between Church and state.  What does this mean for us today?

Is America a Christian nation?  As we celebrate the 4th of July, this is a good time to review what the founders and framers of our country were thinking when our nation began.  What role did they want religion to play in our country?  What did they imagine the relationship between the church and the state to be?  And what does this mean for us today.  

Do you ever get distracted when you are trying to prayer?  Does your mind wander?  Do you daydream?  Do you start thinking about all the things you need to get done?  How can we stay focused on God and keep our attention on Him when we are praying?  In today's message, we talk about some things for you to consider to help you stay focused when you pray.  

We have been having a lot of conversations about race here in the United States in the last year.  There have been a lot of racial tensions, many racial disagreements, and lots of hand-wringing about what has been done or not done.  But, what does our faith say about race?  What does the Bible say that can help us understand what our words, attitudes, and actions need to be, as we d...

Have you ever thought about how your faith affects how your manage your money?  Have you ever wondered what difference your faith in Christ makes in terms of how your steward the resources God has blessed you with?  Today, we kick off our summer sermon series with a question someone asked about whether it's OK to save up money to retire on, and then to leave to their kids, after they are...

Today, we wrap up our series on Jonah by talking about what this story tells us about Our Relationship to God's World.  Are we called to avoid the world because it is so bad?  Are we called to blend in with the world and look like everyone else?  Are we called to engage the world and work to transform it?  In this episode, we talk about Embracing the Storms, Embracing the Other...

The story of Jonah ends with a question.  When God has compassion on evil people who repent, does that make you angry?  When God is merciful towards bad people who change their ways, does that make you upset?  It did for Jonah.  This story teaches us something about God, about our human nature, and how we look at the world and the people around us.

Do you know what your mission in life is?  Do you know what God has called you to do?  Today, as we look at the story of Jonah in the Old Testament of the Bible, we look at what his mission was, and what we can learn from his story, about what our mission is today.  

As we continue our look at the story of Jonah, we see how he didn't really understand the grace of God, and what it took for it to make sense to him.  This story is an illustration of what we sometimes have to go through in order for us to understand the grace of God.

Some people have a hard time facing reality.  We don't want to see or admit our faults or our weaknesses or areas where we want to grow.  But, because God loves us so much, He wants us to face the reality of who we are and what we have done.  This is an essential part of the growth process.  Today, as we look at the story of Jonah, we see that God pushed him to face reality, an...

The second part of the story of Jonah is that when he tries to run away from God, he runs right into a storm.  He hasn't escaped trouble.  He has run right into it.  This story is a great reflection for us about the storms we run into in our lives and what God is teaching us as we go through them.

Today we begin a new series looking at the book of Jonah in the Old Testament.  The story of Jonah begins with God calling him to go on a very important mission that he didn't want to go on.  In fact, he ran in the opposite direction.  As the story begins, it asks us three questions.  1)Are you listening to God?  Do you trust God?  And are you running from God?

The Easter story is about the power of belief.  You are what you believe.  What you believe matters.  Your beliefs shape your attitudes, which shape your feelings, which shape your life.  But, believing in something that is false won't help you.  You need to believe in what is true.  That is why the Easter story is so important.  It is a true story that can reall...

In this bonus edition of the podcast, we look at the meaning of Jesus' Last Supper with His disciples before His death on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Today is the message for Palm Sunday.  As we reflect on what happened on this day, and during the beginning of Jesus' last week before His death and resurrection, we see the story is about Jesus entering the temple, clearing the temple, and judging the temple.  If He were here today, would He be doing the same thing?

When Jesus was preparing His disciples for His death on the cross, He described to them how He was willing to give up His life, so that they could gain their life.  He was both a willing sacrifice and a humble sacrifice.  Nobody forced Him to do it.  He did it willingly.  He didn't demand that people worship Him or follow Him.  He came to serve and to invite others to humb...

In our world today, we see the pursuit of money as a good thing.  But, we often get angry at the super-rich for for their privileges and the benefits they enjoy that most of us don't have.  We don't like it when people get super-rich, but we don't see the problem of us having more money.  In the message for this week, Jesus talks about the problem of money in our lives.  Money...

Halfway through the gospel of Mark, Jesus starts talking to His disciples about going to the cross.  He starts talking about His death.  His disciples have a hard time understanding this, and we do too.  He always says that if we want to follow Him, we need to imitate Him.  We need to pick up our crosses and follow Him.  What does this mean for us today?

How do you approach God?  Do you approach God with fear and trepidation?  Or do you approach God very casually, like it's no big deal?  In today's message, we look at how one woman approached Jesus, and what that tells us about the attitude we need to approach God.

In Mark 7, Jesus addresses the Old Testament cleanliness laws which were such an important part of ancient culture.  Because of the coronavirus this past year, it seems like we have adopted our own version of these cleanliness laws.  But, the Jewish people thought that by observing these laws, it would draw them closer to God, too.  Is that really true?  Find out what Jesus has...

This special bonus message for this week was prepared for Ash Wednesday.  Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the season of Lent, which is the 40 days plus Sundays leading up to Easter.  It is a time of preparation, of self-reflection, and self-examination, as we look at our lives to see what has been holding us back.  This message is about patience and waiting.  It's about think...

In this episode, we look at the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man.  We look at what the surface issue was, what the deeper issue was, and what the even deeper issue was.  Are you only coming to Jesus with your surface problems?  Or are you coming with your deeper issues and your even deeper issues?

Jesus calls us to follow Him.  What does that mean actually?  What does that look like?  Today, we look at the story of Jesus calling His disciples to follow Him and consider what that means for us today.

Today, we begin a new message series going through the Gospel of Mark.  We begin with the opening verses of the book and think about our relationship with God in terms of dance.  God has come to us and invited us to dance with Him.  Have you accepted His invitation?  Are you dancing with Him now?